If you are a patron of the Northern Onondaga Public Library (NOPL), you have one less thing to worry about this year: a new feature called Auto-Renewal will help prevent the accumulation of fines on your library card.

Starting January 1, 2016, library items that are owned by NOPL will be automatically renewed up to the maximum number of allowed renewals set by the library (for most items there are 2 renewals).

Items that are requested by other patrons, that come from other libraries within the county, or that have reached their maximum number of renewals will not be eligible for Auto-Renewal. You will still be able to manually renew items that come from other libraries by accessing your library account online or by calling the library, assuming they meet the same eligibility requirements stated above.

Books, for example, are currently checked out for 21 days – but with the automatic renewal they can be kept for over 2 months.

If you have activated text and/or email notifications for your library account, you’ll receive renewal notifications. When an item that is renewable is almost due, our system will automatically renew it for you and send you an email or text confirming the renewal. If you do not already receive email notifications but would like to, simply call or stop by any NOPL library and provide a phone number or email address.

The new Auto-Renewal feature comes about 9 months after the announcement that NOPL would eliminate overdue fines for children and teen items. Both are seen as a way to make borrowing more convenient and to provide the best customer service possible to patrons.